Former Associations
by DuckieKinz
Summary: One night stands weren't supposed to turn up out of the blue. They also weren't supposed to turn out to be Aliens from outer space. The only thing worse than that was when they turned out to be Aliens from outer space who were trying to take over the world. This could not possibly end well.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:Rewriting the whole story. I don't think I had a good enough grasp on my characters the first time round.** _  
_

* * *

 _They're Pinky , they're Pinky and the Brain, Brain Brain Brain –_

Being woken up via shrill ringtone was not fun. With an almost sob Anne picked up the call wondering what in the name of all the heavens above had Michael calling her at that hour.

"What?!" She growled out.

" _What took you so long, I've been trying your cell for ages."_ He said and she bit back the curse on the tip of her tongue.

"Mike it is-," She pulled the phone away to check the time on it and nearly sobbed, "Two in the middle of the night, what the hell is wrong with you?"

" _Emergency situation at SHIELD, everyone has to report for work."_

"What?" She whined, finally opening her eyes and sitting up, biting back a yawn. "But I have leave for the next week."

" _Not anymore, something big is happening, the PEGASUS facility was downed."_

"Downed?"

" _As in destroyed. KO-ed. Mushroom cloud over it."_

"That's ridiculous, I just checked in there five hours ago, it can't just go ka-boom in that time." She scoffed and fell back onto her bed.

" _Somebody said it was nuked or something. Don't know all the details, we have to report to the Helicarrier."_

And that had her jack-knifing off the bed. The Helicarrier was a military command centre and they were only really called there in case of a big emergency. Like war.

SHIELD didn't get involved in wars. Battles, yes, but not war. This was terrible.

" _I'll pick you up in fifteen minutes. Have coffee ready."_

"Ugh I was supposed to fly out to Seattle today. Jules and I were supposed to road trip it home for Mom's birthday!"

" _Better work out a good cover story, you know how shit you are at lying."_

"I'm not shit at lying!"

" _Sure you are, your voice gets all high and shrill. Like it is now."_

Anne cleared her throat and lowered her voice. "I'm not a bad liar, it's just that my sister happens to be a nosy reporter."

" _Your sister is a nosy reporter."_ Michael agreed and Anne beamed. _"But you are also a shit liar."_ And the beaming stopped. _"Come on be quick about it. Louis is already there."_

It took her more time than that to get ready. The Helicarrier had a strict dress code and her suit was nowhere to be found. She finally found it in the very back of her closet behind the very ugly purple bridesmaid dress from Cheryl's wedding. By the time she had finished pulling it out of the back without disturbing the rest of the contents of her closet, Michael was already ringing the bell.

"You're late." He said as soon as she opened the door, running all the way there and panting by the time she got to it. He was already in his monkey suit and she almost flinched at the sight of him out of his usual black t-shirt and jeans.

"Why is that surprising?"

"Who said it was surprising?" He stepped in without a care and set about fixing a batch of coffee. "Did you call your sister?"

"I haven't even showered yet!" But she stopped to make the call anyway. The time difference meant that Juliet probably wouldn't rip her another one if she called her at eleven. Probably.

 _"What?"_ Came the growled reply. So maybe she would rip her a new one.

"Jules sorry but there's a work crisis and we're being called in. My leave has been cancelled, I can't make it."

 _"Really?"_ Suddenly Jules sounded very much awake and sweet and saccharine which meant that Anne was in big trouble. _"And what is this work crisis exactly?"_

"Umm, uhh servers are down." Anne blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

 _"Really? What happened? Was there a glitch in the system? I've been taking a tech class nearby so don't be afraid to throw big words at me!"_ Jules was cheerful and interrogative and Michael was right and Anne was, in fact, a shit liar. If she couldn't just throw jargon in Jules' face then she had no idea how to deal with this.

"I uh, I'll let Michael explain this to you, we're getting late and I need a shower." Anne hurled the phone at Michael and he glared as it nearly hit his head. With a mouthed sorry, she ran to the bathroom returning only when she heard their conversation end.

"You're welcome." He deadpanned.

"We're getting late we should go!"

"And there's the shrill voice again." He glared at her. "You owe me coffee."

* * *

She walked down the row of workstations, swinging around a chair whose owner pushed out suddenly and carefully balanced the two cups of coffee in her hands.

The Helicarrier was by far Anne's least favourite place to work. Between her dislike of most people and dislike of heights, it made for the worst environment to be in. Agents were practically on top of one another, especially since the collapse of the PEGASUS facility just hours back. Almost all personnel who had been evacuated from there had been sent over to the Helicarrier and there were way too many of them.

Her fellow techies had made a corner of the place into their own home, sequestering screens away from the sights of others and creating a niche for them to work in. It wasn't as good as the set up they had in the New York offices but it would do.

"What took you so long?" Michael hollered, throwing his arms out to welcome his fifth cup of the night. It had been a long and gruelling process trying to re-integrate all the data from the PEGASUS facility to their databases. After the multiple shots of caffeine he had downed Michael was now infinitely easier to work with. All they had to do was watch out for him jumping off the walls.

Next to him Louis reached out eagerly for the cheetos he had requested but Michael made a grab for it before he could.

"Come on, gimme some of that, Fury came while you were gone."

"Fury?" Anne was surprised. They usually took their orders from Coulson, she hadn't thought Fury even knew they existed.

"Something big is happening." Michael said conspiratorially and Louis leaned forward pushing his glasses up his nose.

"I heard some guys in the cafeteria say that Captain America would be brought in! Isn't that exciting?"

"Not really. Sounds like more work for us. Can you imagine explaining smartphones to a guy from the twenties?"

The two boys shuddered.

"I bought my mother a computer for Hanukkah. Biiiiig mistake." Michael shuddered. Anne laughed, leaning back in her chair. When the coffee was drained and nothing was left of the cheetos but orange cheesy dust they were back to business, their brief snack break over.

"So what did Fury want?" Anne asked. The Director wasn't one they saw a lot of and between this and his pacing the command centre they had seen a lot of him in the past few hours.

"Oh he just wanted us to analyse all footage prior to PEGASUS going boom."

"I wonder if Selvig survived." She mused.

"He's the scientist right? The one you wrote the program for?"

"Yes him. He seemed...intense."

"That's a nice way of saying crazy."

She glared at Michael but couldn't quite disagree. Selvig had asked her some strange questions and always seemed to blink right after, as if surprised by what he was asking. Weird, sure, but she'd met weirder and wasn't that an odd statement to make?

"Just...let's just check it out?"

With a teasing grin, Michael turned back to their screen and drew up a video. On the side programs gave off output, registering levels of radiation during the passage of the video. On the screen Selvig and other scientists, worried and watched and observed. They prodded at the Tesseract and flinched when it reacted.

"Is that a smart thing to do?" Louis asked.

"Not considering the gamma radiation its throwing off." She read as the levels on the side continued to rise. "And the energy levels are off the chart, that place should have been boiling, how are they still standing there?"

"Looks like it's pretty contained." Michael noted.

"But it shouldn't be. This is practically nuclear reactor level. Fury's here." She observed.

"Oh my God, where?!" Louis floundered and she looked at him amused, pointing at the screen where Fury had come in full view of the camera. He had the decency to look sheepish. "Sorry. He scares me."

"Well apparently whatever this is, it's scaring him." Anne noted as on the screen the happenings played out. Selvig and Fury walked down the length of the strange device that Selvig had built. It looked like a platform with wires running from it to the Tesseract.

"Do you think he practises walking like that so the coat billows?" Michael asked.

"Doesn't need to, you buy the right coat it does all the billowing for you." She answered.

Agent Barton joined Fury and the two talked while scientists ran about.

"Levels are spiking again." Anne noted at the same time as the scientist on the screen.

"That Tesseract thing is creepy." Michael frowned and Louis concurred.

"Yeah, why is it glowing?"

Anne snorted. "It's literally supposed to be a doorway to space, the glowing thing is hardly the creepiest thing it does."

At that exact moment, the Tesseract's glow grew brighter, flashes of energy running over it in ripples and bolts, every surge sending the camera shaking. The picture on the screen itself broke, going on and off before stabilising itself as Tesseract withdrew energies inward. She crackled with barely contained energy and in a second of absolution, shot out a beam of pure energy coloured in her signature blue. A portal to space opened on the platform, the edges straining, bleeding energy before exploding and filling the contained room in blue flames and everyone was blinded by its light the screen through which the three SHIELD analysts watched, turned white for a good second before it receded.

When it cleared, a man was seen to be kneeling on the platform, the same blue flames crackling upon his back and as he stood they cleared. He looked up with a maniacal grin, even as the agents drew closer, weapons raised at him.

A fight followed, one that was over within seconds as the man incapacitated everyone there and stopped Barton before he could shoot him.

" _You have heart."_

Anne made a high pitched sound not unlike the whine she made when her lies were discovered.

"Zoom in on him." She said, a sense of urgency in her voice and Michael paused the video and blew up the face of the man who had appeared out of nowhere.

Anne's little gasp and look of utter horror caught their attention. She stared at the screen with wide eyes and whispered lowly. "Noooo!"

* * *

 _One year ago_

 _Anne walked into the club still dressed in the clothes from her mission, moving the temporarily jet black bangs back from her face. The red dress earned her some attention but she didn't notice it, her mind still stuck on what had happened just a few hours ago._

 _It was her fault really. She was a tech monkey, not a field agent. She couldn't fathom what had been in her mind when she volunteered to go undercover to get access to the Triad's database. All of Black Widow's lessons had been unable to prepare her the bile that had risen when the target she was supposed to seduce had slid his hand up her dress._

 _She felt disgusting._

 _The sultry music throbbed in the background and she ordered a martini absently. Most of the people were at the dance floor for some reason. Anne didn't go out clubbing often so she didn't know the norm for them but she knew that people tended to go where the alcohol was. This was strange to say the least but who was she to complain. For once she didn't have to shove her way through a crowd to get a martini and she was grateful for it._

 _She sat on the bar stool wincing as the short hem of the red dress slid higher, the slit revealing what felt to be an unnecessary amount of flesh and wondered if she'd ever be able to wash the feel of his fingers off her skin._

 _There was only one other person at the bar near her and as the bartender went off to tend to another customer she picked up her martini and raised it in his direction._

 _"To you," She said, whether emboldened by the alcohol she had consumed prior to that or simply because depression always tended to make her chatty, she didn't know. "May you never feel as crap as I do right now." She toasted to the man before draining the drink in one go._

 _The man however instead of looking at her like she was strange and shifting away like she'd expected him to, simply snorted and took it as a conversation starter._

 _"Don't bother, you couldn't possibly compete with me."_

 _And she turned and looked at him, really properly looked at him. He was quite attractive in the broody way that characters from books always seemed to be. Dark hair and bright eyes, hawkish nose (aquiline, her mind supplied) and general aura of sadness._

 _"What's got you down, Green-eyes?" She asked, hoping that whatever his story was, it would be depressing enough to take her mind off things._

 _"I am about to do something that many would consider wrong. If discovered I will probably lose everything I consider important."_

 _"That was...vague."_

 _He snorted but smiled wryly._

 _"And you?"_

 _"Me?"_

 _"Why do you feel like, what was it? Oh yes, crap."_

 _"A stranger made me feel dirty." She confessed._

 _He shot her an appraising look. "That was vague."_

 _But it was apparently enough because he didn't press any further. And it was probably the fact that he **didn** 't pry, that he **didn** 't ask that loosened her tongue so much._

 _"How do you get rid of the feel of an unwanted hand on your skin?" She asked, lips pursed into a frown._

 _"You don't," He answered. "You replace it with the feel of a touch that's actually welcome."_

 _She thought it over. Anne didn't know how to deal with this and it seemed as good a suggestion as any. She turned to him and looked him over._

 _"Are you offering?"_

 _He cocked his brow. "Are you asking?"_

 _"Yes." She said through a dry mouth._

 _His teeth left marks on her throat moving with no rush. Her dress was pushed down and his fingertips grazed her sides, calluses catching on her skin leaving a trail of goosebumps behind before curling on her ribs right under the curve of her breasts._

 _She thought there would have been something dirty about being touched like this in the handicapped stall in the ladies washroom but there wasn't, it didn't feel anything but hot when he hauled her up over him, the angle of their kiss changing, her hands pushing the crisp white shirt off his shoulders, sighing into his mouth, pressing into his hand. For a moment when his hand reached up her skirt she tensed but he drew circles on her skin and she eased. Every single bit of power her target had taken from her he gave back to her in spades._

 _They had more clothes on than she ever had during sex, the dress still hanging around her waist although more of a belt than anything else and his clothes were off but still hanging off him but they didn't notice._

 _"What's your name?" She asked abruptly and he stopped in his motions._

 _"What?"_

 _"I get the feeling I'm going to be saying it often in a few minutes." She bit back a moan as his hips rolled into hers and he chuckled into her skin._

 _"Loki."_

 _"Anne."_

 _"Anne." He tested it out before leaning close. "I'm going to make you scream."_

 _"I'm more of a moaner actua-" Her words broke off into a gasp as he pushed inside her, raising her up so she fell onto him at an angle that worked so well for both of them that they unravelled embarrassingly quickly._

 _"You were right, that did it." She said once her lungs had stopped burning._

 _And then the guilt crushed in and she awkwardly put herself together again. He must have noticed because the lazy grin on his face melted away into a cold facade and he fixed himself as well and she felt the need to explain that it wasn't him._

 _"Sorry it's just...I can't help but feel terrible, what if someone needed to use the bathroom?!" She whispered and he blinked before smiling._

 _"That's what's making you feel guilty?"_

 _She rolled her eyes. "I'm not about to feel guilty for the best schtupping I've gotten in my whole life. Might regret its location though."  
_

 _"I suppose we should leave." He said absently._

 _"Should I go first?"_

 _"No I'll leave." He hesitated and stopped with his hand on the door knob. "May you never feel that crap again."_

 _She couldn't help but laugh as he parroted her words before melting out of her life. "Thanks."_

* * *

She shook herself out of her memories and watched the footage instead. On the screen the now unpaused video continued with Loki of Asgard taking the Tesseract, turning agents into his minions and finally leaving, bringing the facility down with him.

Anne cursed brilliantly. "Son of a bitch!"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks to anyone who reviewed/faved/followed or read, I really appreciate it!**

* * *

For as long as Michael had known Anne she had been a nervous sort of girl. Not in the way the others he knew were, she didn't throw up before every exam or develop a stammer when giving an interview but she began bouncing on her feet, was utterly unable to stay still. It was how they had met in MIT, they had given their exams sitting on opposite ends of the same long bench and she had been shaking her leg so hard the entire table had trembled. It was probably the only reason Michael had scored so high on that exam, he had been so irritated and desperate to be out of the exam hall that he hadn't second guessed every answer and just gone with what he knew.

When the Black Widow had undertaken her training that had stopped entirely. But so had a lot of the other habits that made her so her. It had been worrying and while they hated how withdrawn and broken the aftermath of that mission had made her, they had also been very glad to have her back to normality, or what at least what was normal for her.

She was quivering now. Louis hadn't noticed yet but her volunteering to get them caffeine every few seconds was her avoiding sitting down. She was restless and thinking too much. Her work wasn't suffering for it now but it would eventually. Multi-tasking wasn't her forte, not when she had personal matters on mind. And this had to be personal because troubles in work simply excited her, another puzzle to solve, it was the human element that she had trouble with so what was it?

What had changed since they'd stepped on board?

* * *

She couldn't stop thinking about it. Her mind was stuck in the events that had transpired one year ago, what exactly had happened? Now that she knew that that was Loki all sorts of questions were rising to her mind. She hadn't bothered questioning things then, hadn't been in the state of mind to do so and she wanted the memory to remain as it was. Yes, she had slept with a complete stranger, but the stranger had been _nice_ and she had been willing which given the events of the mission was important to her and she hadn't wanted the memory to be tainted even if some would already consider it to be dirty.

 _"I am about to do something that many would consider wrong. If discovered I will probably lose everything I consider important."_

What was he planning to do? Did it have something to do with what had happened to Thor? The person she had met that year ago was so very different to the one she had seen on the screen taking over minds.

What changed?

"Hey."

Anne was jerked out of her thoughts violently as the voice sounded from right behind her. Michael cursed and Louis spilled pretzels all over their console and all three turned to find an amused Black Widow squatting on the walkway next to them, hand resting on the railing.

"You're not supposed to surprise the techies! They might have heart conditions!" Anne reproached and Natasha Romanoff cocked a brow. "Louis does actually have a heart condition."

And he had gone pale and all but frozen to the spot. The Black Widow was quite a reputation to hold. Part of Anne felt sorry for Natasha. The other part, the one who had grown up watching Xena: Warrior Princess, swooned at her awesomeness.

"Got anything on Barton?"

"Nothing yet but it's only been a day."

"And we've been told to focus on Loki and Selvig." Michael said informatively. "They're more likely to slip up."

Anne agreed. "For a moment I thought I found him but it turns out Clint just looks a lot like Nathan Fillion." The nose, the mouth, the slope of the eyes, it was quite similar. Now that she thought about it a lot of her co-workers bore resemblance to celebrities. Strange.

Natasha snorted and shook her head. "Give me a call if you find him."

"Call? You going somewhere?"

"Kolkata."

"Ooh, try the Mishti Doi! My sister says it's amazing!" Anne said distractedly.

Natasha quirked a brow. "Your sister went to Kolkata?"

She shrugged. "She was covering the Durga Pooja celebrations."

"Of course she was," There was a gleam in Natasha's eyes that scared her a bit. "Just keep an eye out for Clint."

"Will do."

The red head nodded before walking off at a brisk pace. The second she was out of sight Michael shuddered. "Gives me the chills."

"She's nice." Anne defended her former trainer and both her boys looked at her like she was crazy.

"She's the _Black Widow_." Michael said slowly.

"I've always found the female Praying Mantis to be a more terrifying example of sexual cannibalism." Louis said.

"I don't think there is a 'more' or 'less' terrifying in sexual cannibalism." Anne noted.

"I get that you're all buddy-buddy since that mission she trained you for but it's weird."

Anne tensed as Michael's words brought her right back to the thought that she knew she didn't want to ponder. She couldn't help but think about it, turning it over and over again in her head. It distracted her continually and when she messed up her fifth line of coding she couldn't take it anymore. Anne had never been any good at keeping secrets; she kept her work at SHIELD quiet from her family and even that was hard.

"I need to tell you guys something!" She finally burst out, curling in on herself even as she prepared to tell them everything. "You know the mission Nat trained me for?"

"Yes." The two chorused showing their disapproval of it. She didn't blame them.

"And you remember what I told you of what happened after the mission?"

"You mean when you felt like crap so you fucked a random in a bathroom stall who gave you a fake name?" Michael's blunt words had Louis flinching but Anne was just glad she didn't have to say it herself.

"Yeah, it wasn't a fake name."

Michael scoffed. "Oh come on, there's no one by the name of Loki who matches your description, we looked. There was a few 'Lucas's but they weren't anywhere near the club at the time. "

Anne hadn't known that and her head snapped up to look him in the eye. Michael squirmed but didn't react otherwise. "Wait, what?"

"We were worried about you." Louis said softly. "We just wanted to make sure he wasn't taking advantage."

Back then Anne had been certain he hadn't been taking advantage of her. Mainly because she was certain that she was the one taking advantage of him, using him to feel a bit more human. Now she didn't know what to think.

"That's so sweet." She cooed, clasping her hands in front of her. "Creepy as hell but sweet."

Michael rolled his eyes. "You were saying?"

She cleared her throat, opening her mouth to speak before shutting it again. This happened a few times but finally she found her voice. "I am absolutely sure that his name really was, or rather is, Loki."

Louis narrowed his eyes. "How sure?"

"One hundred percent sure."

"How?"

"Well we just watched a video of him introducing himself as Loki a few hours ago."

They looked at her for a while, confused frowns on their faces but eventually realisation dawned.

" _No!_ " They said in unison and she buried her face in her hands.

"Unfortunately, yes!" She said between from splayed fingers.

"No! That's not him, Anne tell me that's not him!" Louis begged.

"I can't! I mean he's dressed for comic con right now instead of business meeting but it's him, I know it is!"

"Your one night stand was an egomaniac who wants to take over the world!"

"I know!"

"No!"

"Mike it doesn't matter how many times you say 'no', it's still him!"

Louis gaped while Michael muttered and pulled his hair and sighed. "Alright but don't tell this to anyone else."

She frowned, confused. "What?"

"Anne, SHIELD won't think twice about using you." Louis said slowly, looking around.

"But I'm not-"

"Yes we know, you're not important to Loki but any association is one that can and will be exploited, don't tell anyone." It was strange for her to see Louis so intense and insistent. He was too nice to ever be suspicious, something that usually led to spectacular fights between him and Michael but here he was expressing nothing but distrust of the organisation they worked for.

So she took it seriously.

"Okay, I won't."

"I told you nothing good would come out of that mission." Michael grumbled and his return to snarky smartass ways was the cue to a return to normality. The tension dialled back to their usual playfulness and if their keys clicked a bit harder than normal it was excused as a side effect of working in the Helicarrier.

"I love you guys." She noted absently.

"We know." They chorused.

* * *

"Damn." Michael said as he along with the other two watched Loki wreak havoc in Stuttgart.

They hadn't been the ones to find Loki, that honour had gone to Agent Soren on the opposite side of the deck but they had been the ones to find Clint at the Schaffer institute. Since Loki remained a priority all forces had been redirected to the gala instead and they had all but lost track of Clint while Natasha brought him in along with Captain America and Iron Man.

"You sure picked the wrong guy to boink."

"You don't say?" Anne said tightly. At the corner of her screen an alert lit up and she brought it up. Natasha stared back at her through the onboard camera of the quinjet.

 _"Co-ordinates?"_

"Patching through." The image on the screen flickered and the aircraft lurched. "What's wrong?"

 _"Freak storm."_ Natasha answered and sounds from the background became prominent as she clammed up.

" _What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?"_ She could see flashes of red and gold behind Natasha.

"That's strange, the storm just turned out of nowhere." Louis noted. "But there are some atmospheric disturbances about ten seconds prior to it."

"Where's the closest drone?" All three jumped as one only to find their one eyed director looming over them.

Fury was not a person they wanted breathing down their necks on the best of times and this was not a good time.

"Umm, ten miles away." Anne squeaked.

"Deploy it, I want eyes on everything that happens."

"Yes sir."

"Widow?" He still stood over their heads talking to Natasha.

 _"It was an Asgardian, probably Thor, he took off with Loki. Stark and the Cap have gone after him. I'll keep you posted."_ She said and cut the call.

"Son of a bitch!" Fury continued to loom over them.

"Drone's been deployed, should reach in two minutes."

The two minutes flew by as continuous readings of gamma radiation relating to the storm appeared, messing with the programs already working with Doctor Banner's cluster algorithm. Finally the drone found the two 'gods' on a cliff engaged in a spat.

" _-mean to rule them as why should I not?"_

"World domination. Because that always works out so well." Michael said dryly momentarily forgetting Fury's presence. When the director snorted he remembered himself and tensed.

" _You think yourself above them."_

" _Well, yes."_

"I'm not sure us referring to them as gods helps to counter that perspective." Anne observed.

"Doesn't make it right." Fury rebuked her.

"Doesn't allow a good argument of why it's wrong though."

" _Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother. Throne would suit you ill."_

" _I've seen worlds you've never known about! I have grown, Odinson, in my exile! I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it-"_

"Wait, did he call Thor dim sum?" Anne said, taken aback.

"No, Odinson." Louis explained. "Old Scandinavian naming tradition where men are referred to as the son of their father."

" _Who showed you this power? Who controls the would-be-king?"_

" _I am a king!"_

" _Not here! You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream! You come home."_

"He's crazy if he thinks we're letting him take our prisoner." Fury raged.

" _I don't have it. You need the cube to bring me home, but I've sent it off I know not where."_

" _You listen well brother-"_

Suddenly Thor wasn't there anymore as the blur of red and gold, clearly Iron Man knocked him off the precipice.

" _I'm listening."_

"Sir should the drone follow Thor or-?"

"Eyes on Loki." Fury snarled at Loki who was snarking to the empty air Thor left behind. "Smug son of a bitch."

Loki settled down to watch Thor and Iron Man fight.

"He could escape but he's just sitting there." Louis frowned.

"That's not a man who's been captured by his enemies, that's a man with a plan who's looking for some popcorn." Anne said dryly.

"He's our best hope to find the Tesseract." Fury grumbled.

"But keeping him and the sceptre at the same location?" Anne questioned and Fury balled his tongue in his mouth throwing her an evaluating look.

"Banner and Stark are needed to work on the sceptre."

"But Thor seems capable of controlling Loki."

"Perhaps but we can't risk him taking off with the prisoner." Michael said and Fury nodded.

"He can't. Didn't you hear what Loki said, he needs the Tesseract to go back home." Anne said, flush with excitement.

"Maybe but we have a containment facility on board."

"But that was supposed to be for-"

"I know who it was supposed to be for." Fury said quickly. "Maybe there is a point to keeping them separate. Call Black Widow, tell her to move them to the Arizona facility instead and give Iron Man the Helicarrier co-ordinates and tell him to get here with the sceptre."

"Yes sir."

"And when Thor and Loki land I want you to go over and communicate with Thor, get everything he knows about Loki." Fury ordered Anne who squeaked.

"Me? What, why, _what_?"

"Widow said you had potential."

"She doesn't." Michael piped up and Louis supported him.

"None at all, it's really quite sad how little potential she has."

Anne flailed. "Yeah, what they said."

Fury cocked a brow looking vaguely amused. "Still, do it. Thor's an ally, just ask."

"Bu-Bu-But-" Before she could say anything coherent Fury left, his coat billowing as usual. " _Nooooooo_!" She buried her face in her hands.

Louis patted her back. "Could be worse."

"Yeah? How?"

"You could have to talk to Loki." Michael said, full of fake cheer.

"I don't want to find out more about the genocidal maniac who's the last person I slept with!" She whined.

"No one ever does."

"Guys, what did Thor mean when he said, 'Who controls the king'?" Louis mused. "Doesn't that sound interesting? Especially since we've seen that the sceptre works for mind control as well as shooting death rays."

Slowly the two looked up. "You think he's being controlled?"

"I think that the guy who told you that he hoped you didn't feel that crappy again doesn't sound like the same guy who's telling people to kneel."

"People change." Michael shrugged.

"But what changed it? How does he intend to 'rule us all'? He can't exactly go the stealth route and take over important people with the mind control stick, not now that he's outed himself as being all crazy."

"It's not a very sound strategy for taking over the world. That takes politics, not war."

Michael frowned. "I'm going to get some coffee and then the two of us are going over every bit of footage we have on this guy. Anne, you talk to Thor and try to ask around the mind control angle. Some variable in this equation is missing, we need to figure out what it is." He left the two to quietly talk.

"Do you really think it's possible he's being controlled?" Anne asked Louis who thought it over carefully.

"It's a possibility to be considered given what Thor says and what we've seen. He's Thor's brother which makes him a prince so they should be keeping an eye on him and know what he's up to but they apparently don't. Something's off, I don't know what but it's off. And the Tesseract, it's been with SHIELD for years but they haven't thought of using it until now, why? And how is that related to Loki coming out of nowhere when all they were doing were trying to harness energy from outer space? You heard what Barton said, doors open from both sides but that portal was unstable. You don't go through an unstable portal, that's suicidal and you don't try to take over a world when you're suicidal."

"Something clearly changed, he went from drinking in bars on Earth to trying to take over it and in just one year too. That's an entire ideology shift. We create a timeline, plot what I remember versus what Thor says and what's actually happening. Maybe that will turn something up."

"It'll be fine, you'll see."

Michael came walking down that very moment, two coffee cups clutched in his hand. He all but slammed them down, luckily the cups had lids and didn't spill. With the same aggression he pulled out his chair and began typing loudly.

"Stupid Brian." He muttered under his breath and Louis and Anne exchanged looks behind his back.

"You know if you hate him so much you really shouldn't crush on him." She teased.

Everyone knew that Brian and Michael had a love-hate thing going on since they'd been caught making out in a weapons closet shortly after having a big blow out in the cafeteria. There was even a betting pool about them that Agent Hill was keeping the books on. Even Michael and Brian knew about it, something that had the two of them embarrassed and angry (but mainly embarrassed).

Michael turned to face her, angry at first before melting into a shit eating grin that had her wary.

"Anne, one word: _Loki_."

And he didn't really need to say anything more. Her nose scrunched up so tight she could feel her glasses slide down her nose she growled.

"I hate you."

"I know."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:Thanks to Edge of Sanity, kallmered and** **mun3litKnight** **for reviewing and to anyone who faved/followed.**

* * *

"This is a _bad_ idea!" Anne swallowed hard, following Natasha through the Arizona facility. While Tony and Banner worked on the sceptre on the Helicarrier assisted vaguely by Captain America, Loki and Thor were sent to the Arizona facility. It was remote, empty but most importantly, was so brand new that even Barton with his relatively high clearance level, had no idea of its location.

"You get the easy part, I get the hard part."

"What's that?"

"Loki. We need to figure out his plans, he was very unhappy to be brought here. Agitated because of the change in plan. It'll be easy to work him over now." Natasha smiled with all the satisfaction of a cat eating cream and Anne was relieved.

At least she didn't have to be anywhere near Loki. She couldn't see him and not see the human man from a year ago as opposed to the alien Viking man he was now, she was emotionally compromised but in such a way that she couldn't exactly reveal the fact to her superiors.

Anne just couldn't be the person Natasha wanted her to be. She'd tried so hard but she couldn't do it without losing her mind and her mind was her only real asset. Oh but she wanted to be that person so desperately. Anne had never quite outgrown the hero worship that she'd lived with her whole life. It was the curse of growing up in a family of amazing and great women who pushed boundaries, she supposed. Natasha Romanov and Maria Hill were just the latest among the parade of impressive women in her life and she really did want to be like them.

It was why she'd signed up for the mission in the first place. The minute SHIELD had asked if anybody working in Tech wanted a field mission she had jumped. She'd jumped through all the hoops, trained hard only to mess up at the last minute. She'd still managed to get all the information they needed but had also gotten nervous and let a few too many details about herself slip.

The stories people told about being out in the field were full of adventure and romance and excitement and car chases but the reality was terrifying. The reality was thinking that someone had slipped something into your drink and drinking it anyway trying not to appear suspicious. The chases took place on foot and running on heels while people shot at you wasn't exciting, it was mind numbingly scary. It wasn't half as easy trying to hack into mainframes when your hands struggled to find grip because they shook so hard.

She was _not_ cut out for it. So it confused her when Natasha Romanov thought she could. Already she was shaking, fingers tugging at the ends of her ponytail which in the dim lights of the facility went from the bright green she'd dyed it last week to a deep murky swamp colour. She had chewed through her lip and all she'd been assigned to do was talk to Thor who by all accounts was a nice enough guy, outgoing and...blond.

Why her?

"Relax, I taught you well. You got through that Triad guy fine." Natasha referred of course to her one and only mission.

"Yeah I couldn't do it. I couldn't seduce the information out of him so I cloned his phone and worked from there instead."

Natasha stopped in her tracks and turned to her surprised. "You can do that?"

"Yes."

"See, I knew you did a good job."

"But I didn't follow protocol."

"There's no protocol or set method to information gathering. You just do what you have to."

"So what do I have to do to get a Thunder God from Norse mythology to spill the details on his cuckoo brother who's trying to enslave humanity?"

The same cuckoo brother who'd pressed her up against a wall very nicely the last time they'd met.

The redhead smirked. "Just have a conversation. Talk to him. That's why Fury picked you to begin with."

Anne's head snapped to look at Natasha, eyes wide."Wait, what?"

"You're nervous and nonthreatening. People will talk to you just to calm you down."

"So my handicaps are my advantages?" Natasha simply quirked an eyebrow in response.  
"Okay, so where's Thor?"

"Down the hallway in the room to the right. Pass code is 44327 and here's an earpiece, it should record everything." The little stud fitted on the inside of her ear neatly.

"Pass code? Is he locked or something?"

"Thor isn't locked, knocking on doors apparently isn't a thing in Asgard." Natasha explained and went down a passage to the right.

Anne was left standing there alone. The facility was so empty it echoed, a sense of the supernatural tingeing it because of the quiet. Footsteps resounded, metal creaked and door slams were like gunshots. It was altogether terrifying. She paced in front of the door for what felt like ages trying to organise her thoughts. Anne decided all the questions she would need to ask Thor, prepared her tablet and pushed her glasses up before taking a step forward. But then she stepped back again, shaking.

It wasn't so much the thought of having to ask Thor questions that terrified her; it was the label that it had been given, 'Information Gathering'. That was a label usually reserved for spying, coercing information from people and she associated it with her mission. She had worked herself into such a frenzied state that all it took was the sound of a door closing three passages down for her to type in the pass code and bolt inside like hellhounds were on her heels.

"Well, well, well ," Wide eyed she turned only to find herself facing the wrong Norse God. "Look who it is. Anne, how nice to meet you again."

"You're not Thor." She said weakly and he laughed.

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

She did not answer and instead turned to the camera where she was certain Natasha was watching her. Because what were the chances of the Black Widow accidentally sending her into the wrong room, really?

"I intensely dislike you right now." She told the camera and by proxy, Natasha.

"How sweet, a quarrel between comrades." The last time he'd grinned like that it hadn't been nearly as creepy. Then again the last time his hair had been considerably cleaner although dishevelled because of her running her hands through it. Her train of thought must have shown on her face because his smirk turned lecherous.

"I'm supposed to be interrogating you." Anne said and cringed. You weren't exactly supposed to tell people you were interrogating them. Then again, he would have guessed it anyway.

He walked back slowly throwing his hands up and smiling. It was not a nice smile.

"Please, feel free." He rocked back onto his heels and waited.

Anne opened her mouth to say something before shutting it. She had no idea what to say, she realised, and her breath left her and she shifted from one foot to the other trying to find her bearings. She found a chair and dragged it in front of the cell he was in, a thick glass door separating them from each other that could presumably be opened only by inputting the right passcode into the keypad next to it.

IT would probably take her less than five minutes to crack it. She relaxed herself thinking of the exact procedure, thinking in ones and zeros and it worked as her lungs began working again and she found her breath.

"So...how're you doing?" She might have been able to breathe but she didn't know what the hell she could possibly say to him.

"Not so bad. I'd be doing better if I wasn't being _held captive_." His amusement at those words were unmistakable and it was quite obvious he was only there because he wanted to be. "Still, I have had worse."

"Yeah? Like what?"

The smile dropped instantly. "And what is that supposed to mean?" He snarled.

"You're the one who said you've had worse." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you okay? You seem jumpy."

All semblance of amusement left him. "I'm fine."

"Right, apart from the taking over worlds bit. I mean, I know you're not the first person who's wanted to rule the world but no one's been as dramatic as you. Like you've just stepped out of Hamlet."

He held out his hand and a skull appeared in his palm. He held it aloft and began reciting in a deadpan.

"Alas, poor Yorick!"

She'd expected drama. She hadn't thought it would be literal.

"Whose skull is that?"

He put his hand down and the skull vanished even as he clucked his tongue noisily. "You were far more fun the last time I saw you."

"I was far more drunk the last time we met."

He walked back slowly, eyes still on her while her own darted about unable to meet his."Oh no, I'm not talking about the time at the club. Do you always colour your hair in the shades of a rainbow? Your hair was pink that time and now it's green. Strange."

Her hand went to her ponytail, playing with its ends absently. "Pink? Pink, that would be about two months after...the incident. I do not remember meeting you."

"No, we didn't meet."

"But you saw me?"

"Oh yes, in your element too. Did you know, you pout when you code? But when you're particularly engrossed your tongue runs over your teeth before settling on your left canine."

"That is creepy. And stalkerish, what is wrong you? You come out of nowhere, take over people's minds with a magic glowing stick, take eyes out and make bad speeches. Very rude."

Anne thought back to any instances where he might have seen her. The pink hair had been back when she was on mandatory leave following her psych evaluation after the mission. She hadn't spent much time coding then, too busy being depressed and eating ice cream. Her first project when she was back from leave was when she had to write some programs at the PEGASUS facility which meant that Loki had probably been manipulating them to create the portal. It hadn't escaped her notice that when he came through the portal Loki had been on the raised platform as if anticipating its presence.

"The eye was for Barton actually. The little hawk was an excellent find."

"Really?"

"He told me everything."

"Okay." Silence followed for a good while before she finally opened her mouth to speak again. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do with that."

He smiled indulgently. "You're supposed to ask me what he told me."

Anne wasn't an idiot. While she had issues translating Black Widow's lessons into reality she still knew them and it was only a matter of time before she adjusted to her nervousness and began observing the way Natasha taught her to. And she observed that her obliviousness was annoying Loki. Slow and steady his frustration was mounting and it wouldn't take long before he burst.

"Right. Of course." She feigned bewilderment. It was an easy task since she wasn't exactly that aware of what was going on anyway. The events of the last day had seemed very much unreal. "Why am I supposed to ask you that?"

He rolled his eyes and she could see he was just on the verge of bursting in anger then. "Because you're collecting information, you twit."

"I hate that word."

"Twit? But you are one."

"No not twit, 'Gathering Information'. And I'm not doing that by the way. Well, not successfully. Natasha should have done this."

"Barton mentioned her. Well, he mentioned her deeds. Sao Paolo, the hospital fire, Drakov's daughter." The sibilant way he said it all made his intentions obvious. He wanted to make her question Natasha which was not a very smart thing to do. He hadn't done his research very well for all that he knew random things about SHIELD and her work in it.

"You do know that I'm one of the people who runs the databases right? I already know all that. I know _more_ than all that actually. I even know Natasha's actual hair colour."

For a brief moment his lip turned up into a snarl in such a small movement that she wouldn't even have noticed it if she hadn't been looking for it.

He sighed softly, feigning concern. "Do you see Juliet in her?"

She was answering before she could even think it through. "Sometimes. They're both so totally kick-ass."

Anne still remembered watching her sister start her report on a flower festival in Budapest. She was still doing her fluff pieces then, too much of a junior at the news station she worked. But then suddenly Juliet was reporting on the explosions that had started out of nowhere, an attack that Anne now knew to be a covert ops that SHIELD had been involved in that had suddenly become overt instead.

It was only some time later that she registered the fact that Loki had mentioned Juliet.

He wouldn't know about her sister, not unless he'd been looking into Anne herself. He knew about Jules and he obviously knew that that was the right button to push.

If it wasn't for the sheer unadulterated rage coursing through her she might have been impressed by him. As it stood, she really wanted to kill him right then.

"Oh so that's what you've been waiting to tell me! That's why you wanted me to ask you what Barton said! You wanted me to get worked up because you made it personal and stuff. Well, why didn't you just say that from the beginning? All this roundabout talking when you could just have said it."

"Aren't you worried?" fucking terrified. But it wouldn't do to let him see it. She tried to be as flippant and chill as she possibly could, trying to keep from her ridiculously fast pulse heart rate from showing.

"Jules would kick your ass, she can take care of herself."

"So I suppose you wouldn't care that I sent Barton to secure her when the sceptre and I were separated?" He smiled unpleasantly.

 _'He's just manipulating you.'_ Natasha said through the earpiece and the tremble that had begun going through her stopped. _'I'm patching you through to her.'_

With every ring her heartbeat grew faster but finally at the fifth ring Juliet answered.

" _Hey Annie."_

Her sister sounded incredibly out of breath."Hey Jules, listen, did someone try to break in or something at your house?"

" _Yeah some blond guy, that's why I was late answering the call. Just finished duct taping him to the chair."_

"Great, does he by any chance look like Nathan Fillion?"

" _Hey, what you do you know, he does."_

"Great, I'll send someone to pick him up soon, in the meantime just tie him up a bit more."

" _Is this because of your super secret job?"_

"I...do not know what you're talking about. I work at the Tech Village."

" _Anne please, you're just not that good a liar."_

"Hypothetically speaking, if I had a super secret job then your home invasion might have been connected to it."

" _Hypothetically of course."_

"Of course."

" _I'll see later, love you."_

"Love you too."

The smile on her face turned manic as soon as the call was cut and she glared at Loki, her anger allowing her to finally separate the person she'd met a year ago from the megalomaniac in front of her.

"What is wrong with you, you did _not_ send someone over to -Waaaait, why are your eyes blue?" She frowned and stepped back.

' _You've been talking to him for fifteen minutes and you just noticed that now_?' Natasha's voice filtered into her ear.

"Well I'm sorry but making eye contact with someone who has seen me naked is not easy! But seriously Nat, his eyes were green the last time I saw him. Confirm with Thor?"

 _"He's on his way."_

As if precipitated by the conversation about him Thor flung the door open, Mjolnir clutched in his hand.

"Brother, who controls you?!"

Anne left the room, unwilling to stay there any longer especially when Thor was in possession of a device that could create electromagnetic fields that might damage her tech. And there was a growing desperation in her to see for herself whether her sister was fine, while this was not the first attempt on Juliet's life by any means, it was the first one that had been on Anne's account.

"I'm coming with you." She told Natasha and without waiting for an answer sat down in the co-pilot's seat in the quinjet.

"Didn't expect anything else." Natasha quipped. "So you know my real hair colour, huh?"

"Yes Miss Mousy brown."

"And here I was hoping to take that to my grave."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:Thanks to** **mun3litKnight** **for reviewing and to anyone who faved/followed.**

* * *

"He's in there." Juliet said as soon as she opened the door, jabbing her thumb behind her.

"I'm so glad he didn't kill you!" Anne tackled her sister into a hug and let go only once breathing was hard for both of them. "Oh umm, Natasha this is Jules, Jules this is Natasha."

"We've met." Juliet said and Natasha nodded in recognition.

"Budapest," They went on to have a brief conversation in Russian and then Natasha went past them to check on Clint. Anne grabbed a hold of Jules again.

"Are you okay?" She asked between mouthfuls of strawberry blonde hair. Her sister ran her hand down her back to calm Anne before letting go.

"I'm fine, really. Caught him rooting around my house when I was coming back and nailed him with a baseball bat. He's a fighter though, it took a good two more hits before he went down."

Natasha came out of the room. "You need to see this." They both followed her inside. "His eyes aren't Tesseract blue anymore."

Clint was tied to the chair, sweating in swathes of duct tape, ropes and the custom made bondage handcuffs Michael had gotten Juliet for her birthday last year.

"First time I used those and it was for a home invasion." She said dryly noting Anne's interest. "I had to tape over his mouth, he was making too much noise kept saying 'I've got no window' over and over again."

Natasha turned to Juliet slowly. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Anne shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, classified information." With a roll of her eyes, Juliet left.

Natasha ripped off the tape on his mouth and Clint cursed loudly.

"That hurt." He told Natasha who smirked.

"You've obviously never gotten a bikini wax." Anne said and Natasha snorted.

"How'd he get out of my head?" Clint asked Natasha, using her as a focal point.

"Cognitive recalibration. She hit you over the head with a baseball bat."

"Doesn't seem to have a concussion." Anne checked.

"What's the plan Clint?" Natasha asked a still strapped down Clint.

"They're setting off the portal device on Stark Tower. They need the arc reactor technology for something. Selvig's already on his way."

"We need to tell to get Stark there, he might be the only person smart enough to figure out how to stop this."

Natasha narrowed her eyes. "We should make sure Loki isn't being controlled by someone. Now that we know cognitive recalibration work-"

"But we don't know that for sure. It might just be some weird side effect or maybe it's not really him?" Anne suggested.

"If we turn him to our side that might be a better resource than having Stark try to figure out how to stop it."

Anne frowned confused. "So you're saying that we tell Thor to smack Loki around and see if his eyes go back to green on a whim?"

"Yes."

Clint and Anne both brightened up considerably, twin smiles forming on their faces. "Excellent."

* * *

"You know," Anne noted as inside the cell Loki was thrown around. Thor pushed him against the glass and Loki slid down it, his face leaving oily marks across the glass. He needed to exfoliate. "The SHEILD shrink would probably label us as having sadistic tendencies for this."

She was talking about the chocolate M n M's that she was sharing with the Black Widow and Agent Barton while watching Loki getting the snot beaten out of him. Asgardians must have been made of sterner stuff because despite Thor's process of lather, rinse, repeat (literally, Loki was being thrown around like he was in the washing machine during a tumble cycle) his brother was still conscious. They were also having a snark session, the two exchanging insults and long speeches in between hits in a very Shakespearean fashion.

"You don't already have that on your file?" Barton said in absolute surprise.

"She's tech, not field." Natasha explained.

"This is like WWE. Only with real fighting. Take Thor's cape off and even his outfit fits in perfectly with the tights and what not."

Finally Thor grabbed Loki by the foot and smashed him into the floor creating a good crater.

"This might have gone better with the Hulk."

Loki still lying in the crater let out a low whine and Thor leaned over him before shouting. "He's back to his usual state."

"You sure?"

"His eyes are green now." Thor pulled his ailing brother off the concrete and pushed him towards the glass. The three saw that he did indeed have green eyes now.

"Great now we just contact headquarters and we're home free."

Barton choked and then coughed for a good few minutes finally stopping when Natasha thumped him on his back hard.

"Just remembered, three teams were going to attack the Helicarrier. I was supposed to be leading them when Loki," He paused to throw a glare at the wheezing, heavily injured god. "Diverted me from the original plans."

Fifteen minutes of frantically trying to reach the Helicarrier made it clear that they were too late with this information.

"We need to get there." Natasha said.

"No." Everyone turned as one as Loki finally managed to pick himself off the floor on his own, holding one hand, glowing green to his ribs. The little popping sound and his flinch of pain made it clear that he was using his magic to fix himself. "Stark Tower, that's where the portal will be opened."

"I'll get the quinjet prepped, you handle the prisoner." Barton told Natasha, stopping to glare at Loki one last time.

"What can you tell me about the Chitauri?" Natasha asked and Anne tried to make herself as small as possible. If the incredulous looks Thor and Loki were shooting her were anything to go by she was not succeeding.

"They're a hive mind. Destroy the mother ship and they all come tumbling down. Pity the mother ship will be in outer space."

"But if we get there in time can't we just stop the portal from being opened?" Anne asked and froze as Loki's eyes fixed on her. It reminded her of a very different time and she gulped as discreetly as she could, which was not very discreetly at all and he smirked in response before it melted into an expression of pain.

"No, the process has already started, I can feel it." He cracked his back loudly.

"Feel it?"

"The Tesseract likes me. It's the only reason I made it out of the portal unscathed, that idiot Selvig hadn't listened to her properly, still trying to do things the way Fury wanted to." He shook his head while Anne tried to wrap her head around the thought of the glowing cube being a sentient being playing favourites. "Besides, the sceptre is the only thing that can close the portal."

"What if we destroyed the machine?"

"You couldn't, it has an energy field around it that will sustain itself once jump started by the Arc Reactor. The sceptre reverberates with the frequencies of the nearest powerful being. Usually it's me but I am surpassed by the Tesseract by far. Especially right now."

Another crack sounded as more bones were shifted into place.

"What do you mean right now?"

"Energy levels are low. Haven't eaten in a year. Haven't slept in even longer. The night of our encounter was the last time I slept, you wore me out."

A high pitched squeak sounded and Anne turned a bright red when she realised it had come from her. It only made him smirk but Natasha and Thor were both throwing her appreciative looks which was not making her any more comfortable.

"We should get going." Natasha said and started off at a brisk pace, the other three following.

"Umm here." Anne handed her packet of chocolate over to Loki.

"What's this?"

"Food. You haven't eaten in a year. I can't even go an hour without eating. My blood sugar gets low. Should we stop at the vending machine and get more stuff?"

"No thank you. I highly doubt your vending machines have anything of nutritional substance."

She opened her mouth to deny it but couldn't. There really wasn't anything of nutritional value in the facility. The granola bars in her pocket were the only thing of any worth and so after a few minutes of deliberation she handed those over to him as soon as they were in the quinjet.

The two Asgardians strapped themselves down, although Thor took some convincing and Anne pulled the onboard console out and began tapping into it.

"Can you get through to them?" Natasha asked Anne who was tapping away furiously.

"They didn't just blow things up, something was used to hack into the system and not in a clean way either. It's like they tried to conduct heart surgery with a saw and the priority may be given to communications right now but we have other problems to deal with. If they managed to get any of the information about our undercover agents onto the internet that's just going to be very, very bad. As in an alien invasion might be just what's needed to divert attention while we expunge all this data kind of bad."

"Can you get a message through to them?"

"I might be able to tap into one of the quinjets on board and route a message through that for the time being."

"Do it."

"Hold your horses, there are other things to do."

"Like what?"

"Like issue evacuation orders to the precincts around Stark Tower and get that place empty to reduce casualties for one." She turned to Loki. "How long would it take for the portal to open long enough for the first of the Chitauri to come through?"

"Half an hour."

"Fuck."

"Tell them to move to the subways and underground instead of getting them to leave the city, there are tunnels that can be used to stay away from the surface." Barton added.

"You got it."

After a few more minutes of typing Anne shrieked in excitement. "Yes! I have communication."

"What does SHIELD have to say?" Natasha asked.

"The Hulk is lost. Stark is a bit roughed up and the Iron Man suit is glitching."

"That's not good."

Anne gulped and hesitated. "It gets worse."

"How, how could it possibly get worse?" Barton asked.

"Well...Dr Banner had the sceptre with him when he turned into the Hulk and when he...fell off the Helicarrier he had it with him so we have no sceptre."

"Son of a bitch!"

Anne turned to Loki who was lost in thought.

"Is there no other way to close the portal?"

"I don't suppose you have any cumulate eucrite on you?"

"No. Even if I knew what that was, I'm pretty sure the answer would still be no."

"I might be able to close the portal with a conduit for my magic but Midgard doesn't have the right substances to use for a quickening."

"What about Thor's hammer? Would that do?"

Loki's lip curled into a snarl and Thor's grip on Mjolnir tightened.

"Even if I could pick it up it is tainted by the Allfather's Seidr. He uses too much Dark energy, to use Mjolnir is to invite Thanos to corrupt the Tesseract which is not something you want."

"We're screwed." Anne deflated only to spring up the very next second. "Hang on, if Iron Man is still there maybe we can get him to use the tracking algorithm for the Tesseract and check for the sceptre!"

"Would that work?" Natasha was understandably sceptical.

"Well they were using the sceptre as a base to figure out where the Tesseract was, if Loki was right and it reflects the same energies as that of the Tesseract-"

"It should find the sceptre and if they know what rough area they lost Banner in-"

"Then they can localise the program!"

"Get Stark on it." Natasha commanded. "And tell him to be fast, we've got company."

The Stark tower was coming into view and the portal had been opened. Even from the distance they could make out the Chitauri studding the sky and the closer they got to the tower the more clear it became.

The few people milling about and fighting were luckily armed officers but even they were beginning to flag under the constant onslaught. Chitauri kept pouring out of the portal and the perimeter that had been set up was not enough to stop them as they zoomed past all the barriers and lit things on fire.

"We need to get down there and help them."

"Land it on the Stark Tower first," Anne said. "We'll try to keep the Chitauri from going beyond the tower."

The quinjet landed at nearly the same time as Iron Man flew in on malfunctioning repulsors.

"Uhh, why is Rock of Ages not in chains?" Stark said as soon as the suit was dismantled and he was in his plain clothes.

"Oh he was being mind controlled and we snapped him out of it by getting Thor to beat the snot out of him. He's on our side now." Anne said in one quick breath. "Did I not mention that?"

Stark simply cocked an eyebrow at her before turning to Natasha and only when she nodded did he fully relax.

"Alright then Reindeer Games, shut your portal off."

Loki rolled his eyes. "Like I've explained to the agents, I can't do that without the sceptre."

"Ooh bad news. The sceptre is with Banner."

"We know." Anne answered. "But if the tracking algorithm for the Tesseract was calibrated for the sceptre?"

"No good, the Helicarrier's communications are barely keeping up now with the makeshift systems we don't have the kind of processing power for it."

"Damn."

Stark held up a finger just as she was about o let off a long volley of swears. "But I might be able to do that in the RnD floor."

The group split up, Stark going to his labs, the two Asgardians went to the roof to fight off the chitauri before they even made it too far out the portal and the agents leaving in the quinjet after giving Anne orders to stay there in case Banner came by. She stayed where she was, standing at the window and shooting chitauri out of the sky with her guns when another Quinjet lurched and landed on Stark Tower.

When Captain America climbed out she wasn't surprised but when he was followed by Agent Hill she went into shock. It was rare to see Agent Hill out and about, she handled more of the administrative stuff than Coulson and Fury combined. If the Helicarrier wasn't down before it certainly was now.

"Catch me up," She ordered and joined Anne in shooting at Chitauri.

"Umm well, Loki was being mind controlled he's fine now, same with Barton. The chitauri are a hive mind and if we could get the mother ship and kill it, all of them would be done with too, the only way to close the portal is with the sceptre, Loki can close it but only if he has some...eurite? I don't know some stuff he said, I think it might be a meteorite. Stark is in his lab tracing the sceptre as we speak."

"Look alive children." As if summoned by his name Stark strode into the room. "The sceptre is on its way to New York from Jersey. Banner's coming to the fight."

Agent Hill took control. "Stark you go find Banner, hurry the sceptre back here."

"I need a lift downtown, these folks look like they could use a hand." Steve said and Iron Man nodded as he took off, picking Captain America up and giving him a lift to the street where he could fight before zooming off into the sky again and Agent Hill turned to Anne.

"We'll keep them bottled close to the tower."

They were both keeping an eye out, co-ordinating between all the teams and using their own guns to shoot the Chitauri out of the sky when Michael's voice filled her ear. _"Anne, there's a nuclear missile headed to New York."_

"What?!"

" _It's an ASE4849."_

"The ones we-?"

" _Yeah the same, get Iron Man to hack in."_

"It would take him too long and we need the sceptre, I need to do it myself."

" _Don't you dar-"_

She cut him off before he could say anything and turned to Agent Hill who was looking at her expectantly.

"You heard about the nuclear missile."

"Yeah, it's an ASE4849. The facility where they were stored was hit by an EMP, all of them had their guidance systems fried and we had to rewrite the programs for it."

"So?"

"So it's my baby, I can hack it and have it aim for the mothership on the other side of the portal instead."

Agent Hill nodded. "What do you need?"

"Well I need to get close to the missile."

"How close?"

"A foot or so. We don't have the time to get Stark."

Agent Hill nodded again. "Okay then." She said and timed a jump onto one of the flying Chitauri scooters perfectly. Anne's mouth fell open and never quite closed as she watched Hill throw off the chitauri riders before she could even aim her gun at them and bring the scooter to her.

"That was amazing!" Anne said as she got onto the scooter and Hill gunned it right in the direction of the missile.

"You sure you can do this?" Hill yelled to be heard as the wind blew their words away.

"Positive."

But she did the calculations in her mind and found a problem. As fast as the scooter went it was still travelling slower than the missile. Anne needed to be within two feet of the missile for the duration of the procedure and the scooter wouldn't be able to catch up. She'd need to do something very stupid to manage to hack it.

"It's getting close." Hill said and Anne walked to the edge of the scooter, and waited for it.

Against every survival instinct in her, she jumped and landed on it.

"What the hell was that Agent?!" The Chitauri scooter was trying to keep up and Agent Hill had taken to using the comms to yell at her. Anne ignored it to open up a panel and began her work.

It was easy to lose herself then. Wires and codes were her domain, her safety blanket, her life. She may not have been able to jump into air and take over a flying scooter, she couldn't interrogate people without giving away her whole life story but _this_ , this she could do. Vaguely she was aware of someone yelling at her through the earpiece but it didn't matter. Her world was narrowed down to that panel and her fingers, nothing else existed.

And then there was success. The missile began moving vertically rather than horizontally. It changed direction steeply and even as a gurgle of victorious laughter left her Anne founding gasping as she began a steep descent falling off the missile.

There was no slow motion montage of her life passing through her mind. Instead it calculated her chances of survival.

They were very low.

She was falling so fast and from such a high place even if one of the fliers managed to get her, the momentum she'd have built up by then would mean a lot of damage and death. There was no extra material for her to use to create drag force and slow herself down which meant she really was going to die pretty soon.

'Mom's going to flip if I miss her birthday _and_ die.' She thought as the concrete grew closer and slid her eyes shut, the rest of her body following her into oblivion as unconsciousness followed.

She wondered absently if she'd make a splat sound when she hit the concrete.

And then everything stopped.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:Thanks to** **mun3litKnight and kallmered for reviewing and to anyone who faved/followed.**

* * *

The first thing Anne noticed was how bright the light was. It was like everything was bathed in white and she opened her eyes for a brief moment only to close them the very next second.

The last thing she recalled she was plummeting through the air to her death. In fact she was pretty certain she was dead which made this, in all probability, heaven. Strange that. She'd never expected to end up in heaven, hoped against it even. All the really cool dead people were certain to be in hell. She really wanted to pick Howard Stark's mind about the new Stark inventions but she supposed that wasn't going to happen now. Pity.

She opened her eyes to find the world still bright. Anne hoped heaven had sunglasses but before the thought was even completed someone was blocking the light. The silhouette of a long haired man hovering over her gave her pause and before she knew it the words had tumbled out of her mouth.

"Is that you God?"

Vaguely she wondered if heaven had Judy Blume novels.

"God? Well yes, in a fashion I suppose I am." That voice with its cool amused tone and the accent she couldn't quite place broke her out of her delusions.

There was no way Loki was in heaven. Which meant that she wasn't dead.

"I'm not dead." She noted and tried to sit up. It did not work but her eyes adjusted to the light and she could now see that the ridiculous brightness came from being in an infirmary wing. "That's a bit of a surprise."

He kept on watching her, strangely thoughtful. Like she was some puzzle that he was trying to solve which made no sense really, there was nothing puzzling about her. So it must have been something else then. Maybe she had something on her face?

"What?" She asked finally when it got too much.

"I didn't expect that from you."

"Expect what?"

The incredulous look he directed at her was a bit much though. He just opened his mouth to answer her when the doors flew open and Fury walked in. She knew if Michael and Louis were there they would marvel at how his coat was billowing again.

"Agent Leonard."

"It's Leonard-Hastings actually." She corrected and Director Fury shot her a look. She wondered if having his eye trained on her like that affected his awareness. "Hello."

Was she supposed to salute him? She would, but the thing holding her arm down like that was the IV in it and she didn't want to rip something in her arm by pulling it out.

The Director was here. Where exactly was 'here' anyway?

"You're in Stark Tower."

She hadn't realised that she'd said that out loud. She hoped that was the first thing she'd accidentally said out loud or it would be awkward.

"I'm going to have to go in for a psych eval won't I?"

"After the stunt you pulled? Of course." Fury leaned back and frowned looking at her. "Is there a problem with that?"

"No, no, of course not. I can't wait for it really, it's really comforting to be told that you're not crazy by a professional actually." And Susan was a really good psychiatrist, she was so warm and nice it was hard to believe that she'd spent most of her student life around cadavers.

"It appears my other agents have something to learn from you. Try passing that philosophy on to Black Widow."

The gurgle of laughter that left her at the thought of Natasha opening up to Susan and telling her all her worries was entirely involuntary. She'd refrain from blaming it on the drugs until she figured out if they'd actually given her any but when the laughter grew louder and more maniacal with every second, it was either drugs or panic attack.

Drugs would be preferred.

"This has been a very strange day." Anne said when the laughter finally stopped and Fury snorted.

"You can say that again." Then he turned away from her to Loki. "And you."

"Yes?"

"In light of all evidence that you were in diminished capacity and your co-operation in the fight against the Chitauri you won't be immediately taken in custody. But don't for a second think that you're off the hook."

"I wouldn't dream of it." Loki answered in a voice far too condescending for someone who'd just been cleared of taking over the world and the way Fury stared at him made the Director's displeasure with him clear.

"Your brother has gone back to Asgard to speak to the authorities there but he's going to be here soon, I suggest you take this time to choose your words carefully. Apparently Daddy dearest wants a few words with you." Fury sneered and she could see the words hitting Loki right where it hurt.

It was actually kind of mean. It wasn't that Loki didn't deserve mean or anything (she hadn't forgotten about the bit where he sent a super assassin to her sister's place) but still, harsh. So the little gasp and gaping mouth when Fury left was well deserved really.

"Ouch."

"That's hardly the most hurtful thing anyone's said to me." Loki looked confused at how she was almost offended at what Fury said which was just saddening really.

"Still, I mean you're probably still coming to grips with being mind controlled, I don't think you needed that little kick in the pants."

"Are you sympathising with me? After what I just did?"

"Well we did let Thor smack you around for quite a while."

"And that makes up for everything?"

"No but I can't just hold a grudge for all eternity."

"No you can't. You won't even live for all eternity." He was snarking but really she couldn't imagine living for all eternity. It sounded terrible really watching everyone you know die and living forever. And Loki had no idea how he'd just comforted her and calmed her down with that little sneering utterance of his.

It was kind of funny.

She really hoped she'd been drugged because by now she had no excuse for all the fucking laughter.

"You're laughing again." Loki sounded scared. It made her laugh harder and she could see him inch away which is when she noticed that he was in a hospital gown as well and had a fair few bandages wrapped around himself.

"You're injured."

He blinked and sighed placing his fingers against the bridge of his nose and pressing it in circles. "Hence the stint in the infirmary."

"What happened?"

"The Chitauri happened. When I turned on them they converged on me. Quality over quantity is not an adage that holds true when facing an army."

"That sucks. Maybe you shouldn't have joined the fight."

He raged then, like a feral cat all snarls and hisses. If he had a tail it would have been up in the air promising doom.

"I'm not a coward."

"Yeah, but you're a source of information. We can't afford to lose you, you know who really wants to take over the world and why, without that we're just sitting blind waiting for the next attack. I highly doubt anyone who wants to subjugate an entire world is going to give up that easy. They'll probably come back with bigger guns and a more competent army and then where would we be?!"

He looked at her, really looked and narrowed his eyes.

"You're smarter than I thought you were."

"That happens to me a lot. I think it's the hair." The usually candy coloured hair was something people didn't usually equate with smart. Weird, yes, rebellious, of course (quite false really because no one had ever told her not to colour her hair so she wasn't actually rebelling against anything, she just liked colours) but never smart.

Although really he must have thought her an airhead before to think that the logical, rational, completely reasonable conclusion she'd reached was an indicator of higher intelligence.

A groan sounded from nearby and she turned to find that it wasn't just the two of them there. Erik Selvig was there a few beds over and had a bandage wrapped around his head.

"Who beat him up?"

"Beat him up?"

"Well yeah we figured a concussion or a good blow to the head knocks the mind control off. Who beat him up?"

"No one did, he had a bit of a tumble." Loki said flippantly.

"Really? I mean Clint took a baseball bat to the head before finally going back to normal and Dr Selvig just had a tumble?"

"Well it was a tumble off the roof of Stark Towers onto the balcony."

"Ah. That-that's just great then. I'm actually surprised that there are only three people here."

"The rest had minor injuries. You were hit by a chitauri gun on your way down."

"I was?"

"In your shoulder."

"That explains a lot." Like why she felt absolutely shitty. One of her arms, as she realised, was in a cast while the other had an IV attached to it. She really should learn to be more self-aware. How had she gone through an entire conversation with Fury without realising that?

Although she still didn't know why she was alive.

"So why am I still alive instead of, you know, a giant splatter on the road?"

He shrugged. "I slowed down your descent enough for you to live. It wasn't enough to keep you unscathed but you lived."

"Oh. Thanks for that."

"I owed you a debt."

She didn't know how to respond to that so she didn't.

The silence that followed soon after was awkward and suffocating. Anne tried to fill it with noise by drumming her fingers but it made her wrist hurt where the butterfly was still inserted and she stopped that and whistled instead. Soon her mouth felt so dry she coughed instead and when her lungs had finally stopped protesting the abuse she played a beat with her toes on the bed rail. Even that got to be too much, she was far too out of shape to deal with any exertion and it was clear that in the last few days she had exerted herself far too much but she was sick and tired of quiet and wanted noise, she wanted to be back in her own apartment with the traffic, she wanted the hum of the air conditioner she used to cool down her servers, she wanted the noise of the couple from downstairs who were fighting, she just couldn't deal with the silence anymore and despite the pain she began drumming her fingers again only to abandon it minutes later for a whistle and the cycle began anew.

All the while Loki just watched with mounting amusement and only when she began doing it for the fourth time did he offer his services.

"Do you want me to switch on the TV?"

"Yes please!" she said in utter desperation and he flicked the remote quickly.

But when the channel on the screen turned out to be the news she wished for the silence again because the footage they were looping and discussing was of her falling through air and she was suddenly back in the moment, back to watching the ground grow closer, back to feeling her limbs flail without any semblance of control, falling, falling forever.

It was _terrifying_.

The TV was switched off quickly but she was in full blown panic attack mode now, her heart beating fast as all breath left her. She was stuck in that moment, falling, only now the ground was gone and she was just tumbling for what seemed forever in her mind when Loki was suddenly in front of her forcing her to look him in the eyes and suddenly she found her bearings again.

"Breathe, in through the nose, out through your mouth." He commanded and she did exactly that.

"Thanks for that." She said when the little fit had passed her by

He smiled wryly and looked amused and broken all at once. "I know a little something about falling."

"You do?"

He opened his mouth to say something only to close it. Loki swallowed hard and smiled at her wanly. "I do."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Do you want to talk about _your_ fall? Or why you all but sacrificed yourself like that?"

"I kind of had to do that; New York would be a hollow crater otherwise. Plus I have a rent controlled apartment that I can't bear to lose and I really don't like the idea of cockroaches outliving New Yorke-"

She was interrupted when a crash cart burst into the room, Dr Banner behind it.

"What's going on, your heartbeat was up?" Anne got her first look at Bruce Banner then as she hovered over her worriedly. If she hadn't seen the footage there was no way she would have believed that he turned into a green rage monster.

Why green? She'd always wondered that.

"She had a panic attack, she's fine now." Loki answered for her and Banner's eyes narrowed at him.

"You were restrained to the bed."

"Clearly not very well." Loki smiled, all teeth and madness. She was almost certain he was doing that on purpose to rile Banner up.

"Umm hello?" Anne called the attention back to her and Banner glared at Loki one last time before turning to her. "So is the IV necessary or can you take it out now?"

They ran through all the necessary checks before he finally took it out, sufficed that she wasn't going to die on them anytime soon. By then Banner had alerted people that Loki was out of his restraints and Stark was there in his Iron Man suit.

"Thanks for that, I don't really like having pointy metal objects in me." She smiled in relief as the pressure was gone from her wrist.

"Clearly you have never had sex with a robot." Stark said and the glass of whiskey in his hand that he was downing with alarming ease suggested that it was not his first drink of the day.

"No I haven't." The glass was tilted in her direction as if he was toasting to her before it was emptied down his gullet. She'd heard many things about Stark, from her fellow SHIELD agents she'd heard he was a pain in the ass, from her drunk professor at MIT she'd learnt he was great at giving head but no one had ever mentioned the alcoholism. Then again a battle for Earth (and how ridiculous did that sound already) was as good a reason as any to start drinking early. "So when can I go back home?" She asked Banner.

"After the psych eval."

Annoying but understandable. Anne turned to Stark. "You should probably talk to Dr Hooper about using alcohol as a coping mechanism."

"And that's my cue to leave."

"Do you want someone to stay here with you?" Dr Banner looked between her and Loki nervously. "I mean Thor says he's too wiped out to use any magic for a good few hours but if you feel unsafe."

"I'm fine. Bored but fine otherwise. Besides it would be pretty pointless for him to save me just to kill me the next second."

"You really want to talk reason with someone who tried to take over the world?"

"My favourite TV show growing up was about two mice who planned every day to take over the world."

Banner "What's your point?"

"Nothing, just that reason is a subjective word really." She turned to Loki. "Are you going to kill me?"

"It's possible."

She smiled at Banner. "See, we're fine."

"He just said it's possible that he might kill you." Banner looked at her like she was an idiot.

"Yes but he didn't say _probable_."

"That's semantics."

"Dr Banner, I haven't felt threatened in the past one hour that he's been unrestrained. If anything happens I'm sure you'll get a notification when my heart starts beating too fast due to the inevitable adrenaline rush that accompanies murder attempts. In such a case feel free to rush down here but until then I'm sure there are others who need your expertise." Both the men blinked at the sudden change in tone and words. "Also you need to make sure Stark doesn't drink too much, this place has way too many labs which means it also has lasers and blowtorches, all sorts of dangerous objects. To be honest I am more worried that Stark will burn the building down than I am about Loki."

"I take offense to that."

"You shouldn't, drunk people and fire do not mix. Trust me, my dorm was next to a frat."

"I'm not going to start a fire in my own tower." Stark's voice rang out and he entered the room again, this time followed by others. "These bozos wanted to see you." He jabbed his thumb behind him where Michael and Louis were trailing behind.

"Bozos, really? How old are you?" Michael scoffed and Stark made a face while Louis bobbed awkwardly. Things got even weirder when Thor came after them and made his way to Loki's side.

"Brother, you were supposed to be confined to your bed!" He boomed and Loki's face displayed a myriad of emotions before finally settling into utter exasperation.

"Thor you can keep your brother under control right?" Banner asked. "I don't want my patients coming to any harm."

"I'm one of you patients." Loki said.

"But you're not coming to any harm."

"My state of mind undergoes great turmoil in the presence of this idiot." Loki glared at Thor who rolled his eyes.

"He always got dramatic when he was stuck in the healing chambers." Thor looked at Loki fondly. The sentiment was not returned.

Michael snorted in laughter. "Aren't you glad we came?"

"We brought your phone and picked up some DVD's so you won't get bored." Louis held up the bags in his hand enthusiastically.

"You guys are the best."

Michael looked over Loki who had a long suffering look on his face as Thor continued to talk at him. I can see why you tapped that. The brooding, tortured soul thing works for him."

"Wait you slept with ole Bag Of Cats here?" Stark exclaimed and Anne was very glad that the needle was out of her because there was no way she could have stopped herself from flailing her hands then.

"It was way before he tried to take over the world!"

"And dude _you_ don't get to judge anyone's sexual history. You should be dead of an STD." Michael told Stark who spluttered.

"I am a one woman man now."

"And before that you were a free for all train."

"Maybe we should just watch some TV." Louis tried to diffuse the situation. Thor and Loki were escalating in their arguments which were now spiralling beyond understanding as Norse words were dropped every other second, Stark and Michael were hurling accusations at one another from either side of Anne's bed, Anne and Louis were sorting through the DVD's trying to decide what to watch and finally it all came to a standstill when a shout rang out.

"Everyone shut up!" Banner yelled bringing all conversation to a standstill and as his face began bleeding through with green everyone did exactly that. "My patients need peace and calm to recuperate."

Tentatively Anne raised a hand and Banner rubbed his nose with a sigh.

"This is not a classroom Anne."

"I know, I was just wondering if it was okay for us to binge watch Fringe or would that be too much excitement."

Banner threw his hands up in the air and stormed off. "Do whatever you want." He threw over his shoulder and silence reigned for all of five seconds.

"So are we doing this or not?" Stark asked and instead of answering Louis just played the video instead. Thor took up residence in the chair next to Loki's bed, Michael got Anne to scoot over and sat down next to her while Louis put his fete up next to hers and sat on a chair on her other side.

"Have you seen this on any of your trips to Earth?" Anne asked Loki who seemed surprised at being included.

"Not really."

"Don't worry, you'll like it."

She didn't just mean the show.


End file.
